Phone Preview: Nokia N95 Phone

If there’s one phone I’m looking forward to, it’s this one. The N95. One of Nokia’s most complex phones ever made. Let’s highlight some of the features that make the N95 a work of art: 5 megapixel camera. Integrated GPS. Dual action slide. Carl Zeiss. Stereo speakers. TV out. WLAN.

The N95 brings with it a lot of new innovative finishing touches that help justify the 550 euro ($700 USD) price tag. However, first and foremost it’s a quad-band dual slider phone. By dual slider I mean it not only slides upwards to expose the keypad, it also slides DOWNWARDS to show off the dedicated music buttons. Very very slick.

The camera is another step forwards in terms of other Nokia phones. This time around it’s a 5 megapixel – that’s right, 5 – wonder that uses Carl Zeiss optics. Also included just for fun is stabilization, flash, autofocus, 30 fps video recording. Why would you even want an N93?

Integrated GPS is something new that I haven’t seen in other Nokia phones. Now, almost every phone technically has a GPS receiver under the covers, but these are usually there for 911 type calls. The N95 comes with a built-in map application that covers 100 countries.

As mentioned before, the N95 has a TV-out feature similar to the N93′s, along with WLAN (wi-fi), expandable memory via microSD slot, 160 megabytes of internal memory, a 16 million color screen, a videoconferencing VGA camera on the front, 3.5 mm headphone jack, and mini USB. To be honest, I’m not even sure there’s a Pop-port!

I have one main concern with this phone: battery life. Now, the offically-out-of-style Nokia N80 used a rather pathetic 860 mAh battery which only allowed up to 3 hours of GSM talk time. That’s not a lot, considering some of the more powerful features of that phone (3 mpx camera, wifi, etc). The N95 uses a only-slightly-better 950 mAh battery that I’m not really sure can withstand all these crazy features. Nokia, to its credit, rates the talk time over GSM at about 210 minutes, or 3.5 hours. Personally I still feel this is kind of weak.

All in all, the N95 is a ridiculously featured phone that makes the N80, its predecessor, look like a Firefly. It’s also coming out pretty soon – 1st quarter 2007 is the official release window.